while they are at our hand, and are not seen, from the frowardness of an embittered spirit, that will not let its own eyes see the advantage of such a case; but, as if they did well to be angry against God, men will quarrel more for his crossing their humour, than observe his tenderness for promoting their real good, and cry against him because he will not undo them!-FLEMING.

FRANCIS QUARLES, in his "Divine Poems," published a. D. 1630, thus charmingly sings:

As in a clock, one motion doth convey
And carry divers wheels a several way;
Yet altogether, by the great wheel's force,
Direct the hand unto his proper course :
Even so that sacred will, although it use
Means seeming contrary, yet all conduce
To one effect, and, in a free consent,

They bring to pass Heaven's high decreed intent.

GEN. xlvii. 9.-And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

This is not the language of discontent or

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unthankfulness, but the serious reflection of one who felt the vanity of the world, and saw nothing here to make him desirous of a longer abode in it. Shall not we also make the same estimate of human life? Is it not a pilgrimage?" And does not the whole of our situation here admonish us to seek " a better country, that is, an heavenly?" Seventy or eighty years may seem a considerable space while it is future, but it passeth away "as a tale that is told." It should also be remembered, that, short as our existence is, it is sadly embittered with calamities, and stained with sin. Take, then, "the picture of earth's happiest man," when he is quitting the present scene of things, and you will justly conclude, FEW AND EVIL have his days been.

THOMAS ROBINSON.

Well, if ye must be sad and few,

Run on, my days, in haste;
Moments of sin, and months of woe,

Ye cannot fly too fast.

Let heavenly love prepare my soul,

And call her to the skies,

Where years of long salvation roll,

And glory never dies.-DR. WATTS.

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DEUT. VIII. 5-1 SAM. III. 18.

DEUT. viii. 5.-Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.

God is a loving, tender Father to all his children; yet, when there is occasion, they shall feel the smart of his rod. Israel did so : they were chastened, that they might not be condemned; chastened with the rod of men ; not as a man wounds and slays his enemies, whose destruction he aims at, but as a man chasteneth his son, whose happiness and welfare he designs.-M. HENRY.

Kind, loving is the hand that strikes,
However keen the smart,

If sorrow's discipline can chase

One evil from the heart.-FRY.

1 SAM. iii. 18.-It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.

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When we receive evil at the hands of men, we may, ordinarily, at least, justly complain of it. It may be, they had no good intention in afflicting us; or they had no right to afflict and grieve us: they are both unkind and injurious in what they do. But this cannot

be said of the blessed God. He is the Lord, the great Sovereign of the world; and whenever he brings sufferings upon us, he hath a right to do what he doth, and we owe him a full submission. This we should consider on all such occasions, and endeavour to see his hand, and be still and quiet under it.-BENJAMIN BENNET.

It is the Lord-enthron'd in light,
Whose claims are all divine;
Who has an undisputed right
To govern me and mine.

It is the Lord-should I distrust,
Or contradict his will,

Who cannot do but what is just,
And must be righteous still?

It is the Lord-whose matchless skill

Can, from afflictions, raise

Matter, eternity to fill

With ever-growing praise.-T. Greene.

2 SAM. xxiv. 14.-And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

When did he look for mercy? Even when

the Lord was resolved to afflict him.

David did not say, His mercies are great, when he gives me wealth, riches, and honour; when he gives deliverance, and works salvation for his people; but when he is smiting his people, and consuming them with the dreadful pestilence. The woundings of God have more kindness in them than the kisses of many men. Man seldom shows pity to those who are smitten; but how rarely doth he show pity while he is smiting, or mingle mercy with his justice! God usually exerciseth sparing mercy towards his enemies; and he always doth it towards his whole people, against whom he never suffers his own displeasure to arise, though he be often provoked by them, and displeased with them.-CARYL.

Give to our God immortal praise,
Mercy and truth are all his ways;
Wonders of grace to God belong :
Repeat his mercies in your song.

DR. WATTS.

2 KINGS i. 2.-Go, inquire-whether I shall recover of this disease.

We should be more thoughtful what will